Is this question relevant to chemistry

Question

question from a past exam from school:

Dmitri Mendeleev is regarded as the developer of the Periodic Table. Which of the following characteristics did he NOT consider as he positioned elements in his periodic table?

A) Relative Atomic Mass

B) Atomic Number

C) Relative Reactivity

D) Physical Trends

is this a question suited to high school chemistry or 'a history of science'. How is this even relevant to chemistry? Who cares? half my class doesn't understand how the mole theory works and here they are wasting our time with useless bits of info

what's your opinion on the question, useless or relevant

Answer 1

History is undoubtedly very important, and behind all our modern theories lies the history of centuries of thinking and experimenting.

It is extremely difficult to get a good understanding of any subject if you are not aware of at least some of the important milestones in the development of that subject.

Mendeleev's paper on the Periodicity of the Elements is one of the most important publications in chemistry, and a course that did not mention his work (not, perhaps, down to some of the fine details you suggest) would be doing the students a disservice.

Answer 2

This is actually a profound question, although I think it may be too deep for a high school.

The point is that Mendeleev could not take "atomic number" into account when he generated his periodic table, because his periodic table is what gives us our idea of atomic numbers.

So the ideas in science that we take for granted had to be invented or discovered by people who didn't know them to start with.

Actually, the question is a little bit misleading. Mendeleev at a couple of points in the table gave priority to chemical and physical properties over relative mass. So someone might give (A) as the answer because they knew about this.

Answer 3

its not useless but neither is it that important.

Answer 4

There is nothing useless about history.

I think it is a good question.  Many chemistry majors in college might miss this one!

Answer 5

It took scientists centuries and numerous missteps to discover how chemicals react and you are privileged to retrace the successful steps during one brief course in chemistry.  Many in the class will need chemistry as a prerequisite to enter college where they will be expected to have similar background knowledge of other Freshmen (and much basic material will not be covered again).  Even mechanical and electrical engineers must study chemistry (organic and inorganic) in college and it is not possible to say that it will be useful only to chemical engineers and liberal arts chemists, let alone medical courses.  The periodic table is a great way to organize so many elements and even suggests how a particular element will take part in a chemical reaction (all the noble gases in one column are inert and will not react, etc.).  Look up 'mole' in a search engine and read a few articles.  You may go to the head of your class, ha ha.